Category Archives: horses

I spotted this old stable door on a recent walk. I wish I could have known the horse that lived here.

I could tell a lot from the evidence left behind, though.

Note the owner’s cement reinforced foundation, the reinforcing bolts on the lower edges of the stable door, the double lock on the middle, and it that weren’t enough, two additional locks at the top and a metal reinforcing bar securing the top brace.

And as rebuttal left by the occupant, the determined chews on the side and top of the half-door.

I wish I could have painted the door bubblegum flavor, for this horse so determined to leave and the owner so determined to keep him there!

Did they like each other, I wonder, these two so intertwined in the battle for control?

I am not eccentric.
It’s just that I am more alive than most people.
I am an unpopular electric eel
set in a pond of goldfish.~Dame Edith Sitwell~

Like this:

Have you ever had a goat give you the evil eye? I wasn’t sure whether this one was nearsighted or if there was spinach between my teeth.

Goats aren’t my favorite people, although they are the companions of choice for expensive race horses. Arlington International Race Track near Chicago once reported nearly 60 goats in residence. They’ve tried pot-bellied pigs to be racing mascots, but the horses seem to prefer the goats, hands–err, hooves down.

“While most horses don’t seem to mind the short separation for racing and exercising, if their goats aren’t around the barn with them, it often means trouble. They will pace the stalls, and fail to get the rest they need. They just can’t relax unless that goat is nearby.

“Goats often ride in the trailer with the horses when they are moving from track to track. Once, when a horse was sold in a claiming race, its goat was sent along with it. ‘It was the only humane thing to do,’ the trainer said. ‘A horse that loses its goat is just bereft and actually mourns.’ Christine Winter, Chicago Tribune.

And if somebody “gets your goat,” I hope they return it before the important race day!

I go about looking at horses and cattle.
They eat grass, make love, work when they have to, bear their young. I am sick with envy of them.~Sherwood Anderson~

I found this old bucket in a Gold King Mine back lot. For those of you who haven’t been to Jerome, the Gold King Mine is a three-acre graveyard for all things mechanical: old ice cream wagons, belt-driven band saws, trucks and cars and tractors that are slowly melting back into the environment, one rust chip at a time.

What fascinated me about this arrangement, attached to a working windmill by that pipe you see, was the fence down the middle of the bucket. It provides much-needed water to two critter enclosures, neatly dividing the water between them, share and share alike. And the burros seem to like it just fine that way!

To love and be loved is to feel the sun
from both sides.~David Viscott

She and her partner, Shepherd Malone, are on routine patrol in Arizona’s Verde Valley when the call comes in. “Dispute in progress, lethal weapons involved.” The two deputies arrive at the Spinne horse ranch to discover the Water Wars in the Southwest are alive and well. And that’s just the start of their problems!

Fire in Broken Water, Pegasus Quincy mystery novel #3, is now available for pre-order through Amazon. Official Launch Day is February 21st!